Kristol was referring to the Republican’s inability to compete
on the policy front. Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan led the
Republicans out of the wilderness, but now Republicans have
reverted to the stupid party, or more precisely the moronic
party.

Take a minute to examine the presidential campaign propaganda
that Republicans send around the Internet, and you will see what
I mean. For example, recently while Obama was traveling abroad,
showing himself to the remnant of our allies, Republican
political operatives blitzed the Internet with the suggestion
that Obama might not be an American citizen. Doubt was cast on
either of his parents being American citizens. The message went
on to suggest that Obama refused to produce his birth
certificate. All the while, Obama was traveling abroad on a US
passport, a document that cannot be obtained without a US birth
certificate.

Republicans stand for war without end, a police state to make us
“safe,” and “energy independence,” which means drilling for oil
in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve and offshore of
Florida’s Gulf Coast beaches.

What Republicans really mean by “energy independence” is
prevailing over environmentalists. Republicans lump
environmentalists in the same category with abortionists, gays,
feminists, food stamp recipients, trade unionists and
terrorists. To a Republican, saving America means prevailing
over these people.

The notion that Americans can achieve energy independence by
drilling offshore wells and in the arctic is absurd. A number of
experts have pointed out that the best data do not support any
such possibility.

For example, Robert Kaufman at Boston University, citing US
government data, reports that the US might have 40 billion
barrels of oil in undeveloped reserves which are not off limits.
Another 19 billion might be in off limit offshore sites and in
the Arctic National Wildlife preserve.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92677194

All of this oil cannot be brought up at once, and apparently
none before 2017. Bringing it all into production would, experts
think, increase US oil production by 1-4 percent. In other
words, nothing. Currently the US uses 21 million barrels a day,
and the entire world uses 86 million barrels a day. At best, the
Arctic Wildlife Refuge could by 2017 produce 1 million barrels a
day, about one-twentieth of current US use and one-eighty-sixth
of current world use.

This is not energy independence, and it would have no material
effect on price. Indeed, the offshoring by US corporations of US
jobs has a much greater effect on the dollar price of oil by
inflating the US trade deficit and driving down the exchange
value of the US dollar. But, of course, here we are talking
about facts, and facts are of no interest to Republicans.

Republicans are interested in prevailing over the “bad guys.”
The fact that the bad guys are Bush, Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz,
Perle, Billy Kristol, and other such is beyond the Republicans’
imagination. Bad guys are “towel heads” with beards and robes
and are “over there” where they must be killed before the come
“over here.” The extent of the Republican intellect boils down
to “over here” vs. “over there.”

The other great bugaboo of Republicans is “the liberal media.”
Fox “News” has Republicans convinced that “the liberal media” is
endangering America by siding with terrorists.

Clearly, Republicans never look at “the liberal media.” It was
Judith Miller at the “liberal” New York Times who served up as
fact all the neocon disinformation about Saddam Hussein and his
weapons of mass destruction and al Qaeda connections. Without
the New York Times leading the way, the neocons could never have
pulled off their illegal invasions.

On July 18, 2008, the New York Times allowed the Israeli Benny
Morris to spew lies about Iran that he used to justify an attack
on that country possibly even involving nuclear weapons. This is
the same New York Times that the idiot conservatives believe is
part of “the liberal media.”

And, today, August 9, 2008, as I write, it is the “liberal”
Washington Post that has written an editorial urging the US to
go to war with Russia.

With its editorial, “Stopping Russia: the US and its allies must
unite against Moscow’s war on Georgia,” the Washington Post has
established a world record for the maximum number of lies in the
minimum number of words.

Except for the Washington Post, the entire world knows that
Georgia (the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, not Georgia USA)
initiated the aggression that killed Russian peacekeepers and
hundreds of civilians in South Ossetia, peacekeepers who were
there with the blessing of Georgia and international agreements.

The true facts are available all over the world press. But the
“liberal” Washington Post serves up the lie that Russia has
attacked Georgia and conceivably plans to conquer all of
Georgia. “This is a grave challenge to the United States and
Europe,” thunders the Bush Regime’s mouthpiece, aka, “the
liberal media.”

Thirsting for blood, the “liberal media” declares: “The United
States and its NATO allies must together impose a price on
Russia.”

Here we see the combination of idiocy and delusion in one
sentence. The United States has proved that it is incapable of
occupying Iraq, much less Afghanistan. Russia has a large trade
surplus. America’s NATO allies are dependent on Russian natural
gas. Yet the “liberal” Washington Post wants a bankrupt US and
“its NATO allies” who are dependent on Russian energy “to impose
a price on Russia” for defending its peacekeepers!

Seldom has the world seen such total insanity as the
neoconservative Washington Post, a propaganda sheet as far from
“liberal media” is it is possible to be.

Georgia was part of Old Russia and the Soviet Union for two
centuries. After Soviet communism collapsed, the US taxpayer
funded neoconservative National Endowment for Democracy broke
every agreement that President Reagan had made with Gorbachev
and began using US taxpayers’ money to rig and purchase
elections in former constituent parts of the Russian/Soviet
empire.

The Endowment for Democracy purchased Georgia as a US colony.
The affront to Russia was extreme, but at the time Russia was
weak. Oligarchs with outside money had grabbed control over
Russian resources, and Russia was in dire straits and could not
resist American imperialism.

Putin corrected the situation for Russia.

Now using American weapons Georgia for reasons yet to be
revealed has violated its own agreement with Russia and attacked
South Ossetia, killing in the process Russian peacekeepers.
Vladimir Vasilyev, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee
for Security told the press: “The things that were happening in
Kosovo, the things that were happening in Iraq – we are now
following the same path. The further the situation unfolds, the
more the world will understand that Georgia would never be able
to do all this without America.”
http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/conflicts/106046-russia_georgia-0

Yes, without America there would be no war in Ossetia and no war
between Russia and its former constituent part.

Without America there would be no war in Afghanistan. No war in
Iraq.

Without America there would not be 1.2 million dead Iraqis and 4
million displaced Iraqis. We have no idea of the toll on Afghan
civilians, although women and children appear to be the prime
targets of the US/NATO forces that are “bringing peace and
freedom to Afghanistan.”

Recently, US Secretary of State Condi Rice said that the US
government could not prevent an Israeli attack on Iran. Israel
is an independent country, said the American Secretary of State.
What an extraordinary lie.

Israel cannot exist without American weapons and money. Israel
cannot attack Iran without overflying Iraq, which the US air
force can easily prevent. It is clear as day that the Bush
Regime has given the green light to Israel to attack Iran so
that the Bush Regime can rush to “Israel’s defense.”

Meanwhile the “liberal” media is urging the US to get involved
in a war between Russia and Georgia. The insanity will lead to
the unloosening of nuclear weapons.

Dr. Roberts was
Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury in the Reagan
Administration. He is a former Associate Editor of the Wall
Street Journal, a 16-year columnist for Business Week, and a
columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service and Creator’s
Syndicate in Los Angeles. He has held numerous university
professorships, including the William E. Simon Chair in
Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International
Studies, Georgetown University and Senior Research Fellow,
Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the
Legion of Honor by the President of France and the US Treasury’s
Silver Medal for “outstanding contributions to the formulation
of US economic policy.”

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